The Vegetarian Myth

I just finished a great book called The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith.  Keith is a former vegan (for over twenty years) who has converted to a meat based diet for various reasons.  She talks about how veganism led to the destruction of her health and takes on moral, political, and nutritional vegans and vegetarians.  I don't usually read books by radical feminists, but so many people had recommended the book that I decided to read it.  Other people have done excellent reviews of the book, so I will comment only briefly.

Refuting Moral Vegetarians.  She points out that all eating, including veganism, causes death.  To grow the grains vegans love so much to eat, they have to strip the land of living trees, wage chemical warfare against the weeds (which kills a lot of the bacteria in the soil), then kill the small mammals that live in the fields at harvesting (estimated at more than 300 mice, moles, rabbits, etc. per acre).  She calls this "biotic cleansing," not a pretty term.  Plus people eat the grains (seeds), cutting off the genetic future of everything they eat.

Refuting Political Vegetarians.  Political vegetarians make the specious claim that raising a pound of beef takes sixteen pounds of grain, which could go to feeding hungry peoples around the world.  Keith points out that grains are not the solution to sustainability, and they cause misery and death through obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc.  She makes an argument that agriculture is killing the planet and that political vegetarians are well-meaning, but wrong.  She also points out that grass fed beef uses no grains at all, is sustainable, treats animals well, and actually builds topsoil, instead of depleting it like agriculture does.

Refuting Nutritional Vegetarians.  This was my favorite part of the book.  She looked at all the diseases she and others have suffered as a result of the vegan lifestyle and does an excellent job of showing where dense nutrients come from: fat and meat.  She blows apart a lot of idiotic vegetarian claims, such as the claim that humans were not built for eating meat (we are very clearly omnivores).  She carefully details the diseases vegans have, and that their children are much more prone to some really nasty problems.  It was quite sad to read about what veganism did to her body, some of which is irreversible.

This book is for anyone contemplating a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, especially young women (teens and early twenties), who are the primary targets of vegan/vegetarian recruitment.  If you are in this age group and considering a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle, please read this book.  It may just save your life.

The worst thing about this book: it's loaded with radical feminist and left-leaning politics.  I just skipped over those parts.  But the parts about why vegetarianism is wrongheaded are very good.